PhD Opportunities

• If you have already secured personal funding, and would like to apply for a PhD at the William Harvey Research Institute, please see the research areas where we are able to offer projects.
• Currently available PhD projects within the William Harvey Research Institute are also listed below.
• Once you have identified an area of research or specific PhD project that interests you please contact the listed supervisor to discuss further.
• If you wish to discuss PhD projects and research opportunities further please contact Dr James Whiteford (Director of Graduate Studies).
• Once you have identified a suitable project and supervisor please submit an online application where you should select the relevant William Harvey Research Institute course.

Current PhD projects

• Application of traditional clinical and imaging risk assessment tools for ischaemic heart disease in BAME cohorts and development of ethnic specific tools (Professor Steffen Petersen, Professor Patricia Munroe)
• Augmentation of cardiac macrophages for the treatment of heart failure (Professor Ken Suzuki)
• Bioenergetic failure and creatine supplementation in critical illness (Dr Zudin Puthucheary, Dr John Prowle)
• Deciphering the role of PI3K signalling in dendritic cell antigen presentation functions and adaptive immunity (Dr Ezra Aksoy)
• Determining Pharmacogenetic Influences of Response to Antihypertensives and Statins Treatment using Clinical Trials and Large Biobanks (Dr Helen Warren, supervisor and Professor Patricia Munroe co-supervisor)
• Development of a novel strategy of adult stem cell therapy for heart failure (Professor Ken Suzuki)
• Development of an innovative approach for ESC/IPSC therapy for heart failure (Professor Ken Suzuki)
• Development of an innovative extracellular vesicle-based therapy for heart failure (Professor Ken Suzuki)
• Development of a new strategy for prevention of post-operative adhesion (Professor Ken Suzuki)
• Evaluating the impact of metabolic regulation on iPSC-cardiomyogenic maturation (Dr Fiona Lewis-McDougall)
• Exploring the molecular mechanisms of PI3K alpha - RAS signalling in amino acids sensing mTORC1 pathway in intestinal epithelial homeostasis (Dr Ezra Aksoy)
• Histone tails in vascular diseases (Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
  
• Identifying novel pathogenic mechanisms by integrating Human DNA methylome variation within Common-Disease associated loci (Dr Christopher Bell)
• Imaging and clinical predictors of cardiovascular outcomes in valvular heart disease (Professor Steffen Petersen)
• Imaging, clinical, and genetic predictors of outcomes in cardiomyopathies and heart failure (Professor Steffen Petersen)
• Impact of cardiac metabolic modulation on post-ischemic functional recovery (Dr Dunja Aksentijevic)
• Inflammation as a common risk factor for mental and physical illnesses (Dr. L.A. Carvalho, Dr. Christopher Bell, Dr. Helen Warren)
• Inflammation in kidney disease and depression (Dr. L A Carvalho, Prof. K. Bhui, Prof. Magdi Yaqoob)
• Inflammation in treatment-resistant depression (Dr. L A Carvalho, Prof G. Lewis)
• Investigating disease mechanisms underlying puberty disorders (Dr Sasha Howard)
• Investigating Immune Mechanisms in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Using Genetics and MR Imaging (Dr Matthew Traylor)
  
• Investigating new regulators of cancer immune surveillance (Dr Tyson Sharp)
• Investigation of novel genetic causes of adrenal insufficiency (Professor Lou Metherell)
• Investigation of the role of cardiac macrophages in myocardial infarction and heart failure (Professor Ken Suzuki)
• Investigation of peritoneal macrophages during formation of post-operative adhesion (Professor Ken Suzuki)
• Investigating the genetic interplay between adult height, adiposity and disease (Dr Eirini Marouli) 
• Linking the maternal immune response to pregnancy outcome (Dr Suchita Nadkarni)
• Machine learning for disease identification and prediction (Dr Eirini Marouli)
• 3D Mapping of Lymphoid Tissue Stromal subsets Using Multiplex Deep Tissue Microscopy: From Homeostasis to Inflammation (Dr Lalit Dubey) 
• Mapping lung proteome to disease and function (Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
• Mental well-being and cardiovascular health (Professor Steffen Petersen, Professor Patricia Munroe)
• Mitochondria in platelet-endothelial crosstalk (Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
• Molecular and cellular mechanism of CLIC proteins in vascular dysfunction (Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
• Molecular chaperone dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease (Professor Paul Chapple)
• Molecular mechanism controlling hypothalamic-pituitary axis (Dr Carles Gaston-Massuet)
• ML approach to risk stratify patients with stable chest pain using multimodality imaging, clinical, and biochemistry data (Professor Steffen Petersen)
• Multimodality intravascular and non-invasive imaging for assessment of plaque pathophysiology (Professor Andreas Baumbach)
• Myocardial Insulin Resistance in Chronic Kidney Failure (Dr Dunja Aksentijevic)
• Neuro-immune mechanisms mediating the transition from acute to chronic pain (Dr Shafaq Sikandar)
• Novel regulatory mechanisms for controlling Von Willebrand factor secretion from endothelial cells (Dr Tom Nightingale)
• Microplastic risk assessment in human health (Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
• AI-based drug discovery for cardiovascular diseases (Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
• Intracellular chloride channel (CLIC) mediated inflammation in cardiovascular diseases (Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
• Ageing and Intracellular chloride channels proteins (Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
• Proteomics based druggable target discovery in cardiovascular diseases (Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
• Prospective observational study investigating genomic determinants of outcome from cardiogenic shock (GOlDilOCS) (Dr Alastair Proudfoot, (CI), Professor Charles Hinds (PI), J Knight (PI), T Gerschlick (PI) )
• Role of melanocortin receptor accessory proteins in adrenal function and metabolism (Dr Li Chan) 
• Role of stem cell in hypothalamic-pituitary tumours (Dr Carles Gaston-Massuet)
• Study of heart diseases using artificial intelligence (AI) with cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) and electronic health record (HER) data in the Barts BioResource (Professor Steffen Petersen) 
• Succinate dehydrogenase mutations in endocrine tumours (Professor Paul Chapple)
• Tissue morphogenesis in the adult skeleton (Professor Francesco Dell’accio, Dr Anne-Sophie Thorup and Dr Suzanne Eldridge)
• Trafficking of endothelial tight junction proteins during inflammation and angiogenesis (Dr Tom Nightingale)
• Transcriptomic and Proteomic screening of novel drug targets for vascular fibrosis (Dr Neil Dufton and Dr Vahitha Abdul Salam)
• Understanding critical and acute care outcomes from large datasets (Dr Zudin Puthucheary and Dr John Prowle)
• Understanding impacts of diet on cardiovascular health (Professor Steffen Petersen, Professor Patricia Munroe)
• Understanding the molecular mechanisms of osteoarthritis progression using transgenic models (Dr Suzanne Eldridge and Professor Francesco Dell’accio)
• Unravelling hypertension-related cardiovascular risk using large scale cohort data and -omics approaches (Professor Patricia Munroe, Professor Steffen Petersen)
• Unravelling the links between phagocytosis defects in innate immune cells and inflammatory bowel disease (Dr Ezra Aksoy)
• Using bioinformatics to understand the complex relationships between thyroid function and disease (Dr Eirini Marouli)
• Using Genetics to Prioritise Treatments for Cerebral Small Vessel Disease (Dr Matthew Traylor)